27/02/08 "ICH"
--- - From the very beginning, the American crusade of surge
and siege – with much of it predating the invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq; think to early 20th century agreements
with Saudi royalty of protection for petroleum, or the overthrow
of Iran’s democratically elected nationalist leader, or CIA
coups and installing of tyranny, or support for Saddam, or
provocations of war, or fanning the flames of violence, or
importation of billions worth of weapons – has been a
catastrophe for the people of the Middle East. For years the
United States has guided policy and fates in the region, with
its unchallenged domination of and immoral support in the
regimes of the Middle East causing a complete devolution of a
dynamic, intelligent and proud amalgam of peoples, continuing a
stagnation of a civilization that has given humanity so much,
and which has so much yet to offer.

It has been the support of tyrants, dictators, generals, kings,
princes and sheiks which has had the most profound effect in the
lives of tens of millions of Arabs and Muslims, altering,
perhaps indefinitely, the very foundations of a culture, and
religion, that has for centuries been bombarded by the
Judeo-Christian values of the western world. From Napoleon to
Hitler, from the British Empire of old to the American Empire of
today, from French domination of the Levant to the ceaseless
criminality of Little Sparta in Palestine, the Middle East has
been invaded, colonized, raped, pillaged, oppressed and
exploited by western powers for decades.

It has been divided and torn apart according to the desires of
colonial powers; it has been invaded countless times by
Christian Crusaders seeking some combination of god and glory,
power and control, hegemony and imperialism. Throughout
European, and later American, interventions in the region,
countless numbers of Arabs and Muslims suffered and died. It has
been the west, and not the peoples of the Middle East, that have
for centuries been the aggressors, the barbarians at the gates
of Muslim cities, those doing the invading and occupying, those
raping and pillaging, those with the messianic delusion to
convert and civilize and control the Arab world.

It has been the west that thinks itself the superior race,
thinking Middle Easterners inferior, sub-human heathens. It has
been the west that ignores the plight of the dehumanized and the
oppressed, all the while enjoying the spoils of plunder, over
time becoming morbidly obese with the gluttony and greed cheap
oil engenders.

The people of the Middle East were not, after all, the ones
responsible for the Napoleonic Wars, nor the creators of two
World Wars, nor the destroyers of entire cities, nor the
barbarians giving rise to Holocausts, or thousand year old
persecutions, nor the ones responsible for the death of tens of
millions of human beings during the 20th century. The people of
the Middle East were not planting puppet regimes throughout
Europe and the Americas, nor were they wishing to convert,
civilize and control the western world. They are not the ones in
pursuit of imperialism and hegemony.

They were not bombing and killing and seeking vengeance outside
their region until after the Second World War, after America,
with help from her allies, decided the Middle East was to become
part of its sphere of influence. Indeed, for centuries living in
peace and respect, in the same lands, cities and neighborhoods,
Arabs of Muslim, Christian and Jewish faith have long maintained
a balance of tolerance between Muslim majority and Jewish,
Christian minorities that has only been disrupted with the
arrival, and the manipulations and gross injustice, of the
western colonial powers.

For decades preferring to control the region by proxy, in a
clandestine manipulation of populations and territory, the
United States has become a catastrophe upon the peoples of the
Middle East. Its vast assortment of puppets and castrated
proctors have proceeded to decimate the lives and futures of
millions, over the years maintaining a firm grip over nations
through the devastation of freedoms and liberties and rights,
along with the implementation of authoritarian and despotic
policies. Unwavering in its support of these tyrants, America
has condemned millions to the brutality of dictatorships, to the
censorship by despots, to the corruption of incompetents, to the
regressive policies of control, to the backwardness of monarchs.

Sponsoring Tyranny

Possessing the largest, most plentiful and best developed oil
fields known to man, one would be inclined to believe the Middle
East a bastion of equality and justice, with standards of living
equal to or surpassing those of the industrialized world. We
would expect a thriving democracy pregnant with the freedoms and
liberties inherent in wealthy nations. We would also expect, as
we do with rich European and American nations, that the
countries of the Middle East would possess a high degree of
education among its population, allowing for rule of law and
foundations of secularism to prevail. We would expect a thriving
middle class, with employment at levels supportive of such
dynamics. We would expect peace and balance.

Instead, in the land of black gold there exists not a shred of
democracy, nor an ounce of freedom and liberties, nor an
appearance by redistribution of oil wealth. In the lands where
humankind first developed civilization, Machiavellian
authoritarians rule, police states flourish, and backwardness
prevails. Here, where a few elite are reaping the bountiful
rewards of having oil below their feet, or having the lands
deemed strategic to the Empire, accumulating millions and
billions of dollars in profit, building majestic palaces and
living the lives of gods, the vast majority struggle to survive
and make a decent living. Here, in the land of kingdoms and
fiefdoms and gold-plated palaces, the majority of Arabs and
Muslims live in indigence, finding work only as the serfs
enabling their Arab lords to live in luxury. Millions manage to
survive only because their masters throw a few insignificant
crumbs and bones their way, a minute sum of the enormous oil and
gas windfall they greedily ensnare for themselves.

While millions subsist on meager jobs, millions more struggle to
find meaningful employment. Unemployment in the region is
therefore high, with military-age males the hardest hit. Without
employment there is no source of income to survive; there is no
morale to feel proud of; there is no sign of opportunity, no
sign of a future. With an education that is insignificant, for
that is how kings and dictators want it, millions have no option
but to become easy targets to the propaganda and the
manipulations of their lords.

Indeed, in order to better control the population, education has
become a tool of indoctrination, with millions of dollars
invested by the elite into religious institutions that brainwash
and mold vulnerable minds to the fantasy of theology and the
backwardness of extremist ideology. Subsidized and sponsored by
the same kings and tyrants, these schools, rather than move
society forward towards progressive goals, instead succeed in
devolving into backwardness and fundamentalism. Many Muslims
simply have no choice but to attend these schools, for
oftentimes they are the only schools around, in the process
helping indigent families cope with the realities of daily life.

So long as ignorance prevails, and as long as knowledge and
leanings of modernity are sequestered and mired in the
inescapable grip of poverty, the Middle East’s despotic leaders
will remain secure and without fear of their own people. So long
as their people are not educated to the methodical condemnation
of their lives by kings and despots, leaders will reign, sitting
on the thrones of gold, feasting on the spoils thrown at them by
the Empire. This reality the Empire tolerates and even
encourages, for a controlled, undereducated and powerless people
are more likely to remain compliant and passive than those who
see with open eyes the pillage of their land and the injustice
of their leaders.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon of fundamentalist religious
indoctrination, together with lack of education and feelings of
injustice, oppression and inequality lends itself to the
fomentation of extremism, just as it does in any culture,
especially a form of extremism which lashes out both at domestic
despotism and foreign control and support of that same despotic
rule. Using fundamentalist theology to manipulate desperate
minds experiencing desolate, unfulfilled lives, radical men of
Islamic faith reach out to the many whose lives have been
castrated by leaders supported by the Empire.

Radicalism in the Middle East, born of frustration, oppression
and lack of opportunity, growing due to inequality, unfairness,
injustice and persecution, nurtured by a corrupted and hijacked
interpretation of modern Islamic faith, and manifesting itself
through violent acts of terrorism, is a symptom of the disease
called market colonialism, of an imperialism that cares nothing
for people living in misery and perpetual suffering, where the
west props up and supports and finances its cadre of despots and
tyrants in the region, with their full array of crimes against
humanity being protected by the Empire itself, at the expense of
the native populations, in order to control the region’s, and
the world’s, most valuable resource. Turning to Islamic
extremism, then, is a symptom of anger, of hopelessness, of the
presence of the Empire itself.

Islamic fanaticism, like its American, and Christian
counterpart, thrives on the disenfranchised, the downtrodden,
the ignorant, and in those searching for meaning to lives heavy
in suffering and pain. Like all forms of fanaticism, the Islamic
variety grows and thrives by listening to the angry and the
oppressed, providing answers and solutions that help maintain a
semblance of understanding in a cruel world. It is those who
have become easily manipulated and easily deceived that
fanaticism aims to reach, for in these lost souls new, molded
flames can be lit.

Thus, by combining the fanaticism all theologies possess with
the living, walking carcasses left behind by America’s propped
up tyrants and kings, gorging on the spoils of oil, too greedy
to share with their people, together with American interference
in the region, a grassroots resistance is birthed that finds
solace and solutions in the beliefs of the past, thinking,
rightly, that the devastation of their lives is a result of
modernity –albeit a debased form of it – and its corruption by
authoritarians sponsored by the west.

Deceived by extremism to hate all things western, because the
root of their ills is indeed a product of the western world,
they fail to see the reality that true fault lies not in western
progressiveness, which is humanitarian, communal and universal
in nature, but in the despotic character and oppressive policies
of leaders that will not free their subjects to the great
virtues of real democracy.

Here, America and her puppet allies in the region have made a
vital and egregious error, for in inducing high levels of
indigence, uneducation and dissatisfaction, in allowing
despotism to rule and the voice of the people to disappear,
thereby creating a Molotov cocktail of anger and resentment
aimed at the Empire and Arab leaders, they have fostered
instability and resistance, some in the form of
anti-Americanism, some in the form of terrorism, most in the
form of a society that grows more eager for change every year.
Together with a perception that America has embarked on a
Crusade of Surge and Siege against the Muslim world, and that
her armies are engaging in mass murder and destruction of Muslim
peoples, the only avenue for change is being found inside the
mosques of radical ideology.

Error Personified

Instead of giving Middle East populations a larger share of the
oil bonanza pie; instead of decreasing the verticality of the
hierarchical pyramid, thus making society more just, fair and
equal, with better standards of living, better education and
more progressiveness; instead of allowing the Empire a just,
balanced and reduced access and control to oil; instead of
banning the pillage of revenues and resources, where capital
benefits only the elite; instead of investing in enlightened
education, helping to bring out of darkness millions of minds;
instead of using oil revenues and investing in the wellbeing of
their people; instead of halting billion dollar purchases in the
west’s defense industry, amassing arms for wars that will never
come, using weapons sales to funnel petro dollars back to the
Empire; instead of alleviating hardship, resentment and anger;
instead of sponsoring freedom and liberty and greater rights;
instead of abiding by and protecting human rights; instead of
encouraging an open, democratic society, the American amalgam of
dictators, tyrants, kings, princes, sheiks and generals have
done the complete opposite, thereby cementing in stone continued
resistance, continued acts of terror, continued anti-Americanism
and continued efforts to violently overthrow the region’s
rulers.

In order to suppress, repress and control those elements seeking
to bring down the region’s tyrannical regimes, the leaders of
these states have created a ruthless police state based on
oppression, fear, intimidation and paranoia. To combat the anger
prevalent in the population, America’s puppets must enhance a
surveillance and spying society, creating a police state that
has perfected the art of despotic rule. Torture, disappearances,
the evisceration of human rights, unlawful arrests, persecution
and false imprisonment are but some of the weapons used by these
rulers. Yet the Empire maintains firm support of these leaders,
a fact not lost on the population at large.

Right to assembly, right to free speech, freedom of the press,
the right of habeas corpus, the right to a fair trial, the right
of due process and of protections against unreasonable search
and seizure are freedoms not afforded to the peoples of the
Middle East. These are freedoms and rights America does not care
to ask or demand of its puppets. Free elections and the will of
the people are but hollow dreams that cannot be given to the
masses, for if allowed to vote, tyrants and kings and dictators
and generals would be thrown out. To the Empire, democracy is
only democracy when the people elect America’s chosen leaders,
her new puppet upgrade. If the masses elect someone other than
America’s champion, democracy becomes null and void, the will of
the people become obsolete and collective punishment becomes
policy, and state-sponsored terror. To the Empire, democracy is
valid only when fraud or theft returns to power her most loyal
and obedient proctors.

The people of the Middle East do not hate the Empire for its
freedom and liberties, nor for its way of life. On the contrary,
they would love the same freedoms and liberties, the same
respect for human rights, and perhaps a better standard of
living than they presently enjoy. They hate the Empire for its
transgressions in the region, for its continued support for
tyranny, for its hypocrisy in talking democracy and systemically
supporting despotism, for its rape and pillage of both land and
people, for its addiction to oil that has brought nothing but
ruin to the people of the region, for its one-sided support for
Israel and its apartheid and state-sponsored terrorism in
Palestine, for its genocide and destruction of Iraq and its
people, for promising Afghan reconstruction but only succeeding
in furthering a decline to a failed state, for its quite obvious
indifference to the misery and suffering of Arab and Muslim
peoples, for its continued Crusade of Surge and Siege that only
threatens to engulf the region in flames and further decimate
the lives of millions.

Democracy and freedom cannot prosper in these conditions, for
despotic rule and free societies are mutually exclusive. In
fact, the populations of these nations have very few, if any,
freedoms and rights to speak of, and millions are handcuffed to
the heavy handed rules and regulations of the state, many of
which resemble those of the Middle Ages. When democracy is
spoken of, it represents illusions and mirages, not the will of
the people, but the charades of the elite. In the Middle East,
democracy is a whispered demand, yet an unfulfilled reality. It
remains a dream of millions, and an enemy of the few. In the
Middle East of reality, and not that of American fiction,
tyranny dominates and democracy is nonexistent and all the
while, American hypocrisy festers in the mind of the
disillusioned.

Of course the United States is fully aware of the methods used
by its tyrants to control the population, yet the support,
whether diplomatic, financial and militarily, is as constant as
it is unwavering. This tacit support of tyranny by the Empire,
even when it speaks of bringing freedom and democracy, speaks of
the high level of hypocrisy and duplicity inherent in the
Empire. That American sponsored tyranny has catapulted the
region into backwardness, that it has furthered the evolution of
fanaticism, that it has given rise to resistance and terror,
that it has made impotent the infinitesimal attempts at building
democracy, and that it has created decades of suffering,
poverty, oppression and lost opportunity can only be denied, as
it usually is, inside the Empire itself. Inside the fires of
imperialism, that is to say inside the Middle East, this truth
is well known, and understood.

That human beings resent despotism and tyranny is a self-evident
truth; that they build resistance and resentment to colonial
machinations and imperialist assaults on their lives is earthly
reality. That most human beings want simply the opportunity to
pursue life, liberty and happiness without barriers or
hindrances or the control of the state is an absolute
manifestation of who we are. To be human – and yes, the people
of the Middle East are, in fact, human – is to seek and want
justice, fairness, equality and fundamental human rights. It is
to fight oppression and stand for dignity and honor.

What we abhor as a species are illegal, aggressive invasions and
brutal occupations of innocent states, exploitations and
repression of the individual and criminality and mass murder
that is allowed to transpire and go unaccountable. What the
people of the Middle East want is exactly what the western world
already has. What they want is freedom from imperialism, freedom
from tyranny, freedom to exploit their own resources, for their
own benefit, for their present and future generations. What they
seek is a chance to be human at the dawn of the 21st century.

What they ask is that they be seen the same as any other person
in this planet, possessing the same emotions, fears and
opinions, the same behaviors and desires. What they seek is the
empathy and understanding for the lives they must endure, the
tyranny they must live under and the Crusade of Surge and Siege
the Empire has imposed on them.

So close your eyes, contemplate reality and not spoon-fed
fantasy, envision and empathize, try to understand alien pain
and suffering, put yourself in the shoes of the millions being
strangulated by the Empire, and prepare to enter the fires of
imperialism.

Manuel Valenzuela is a social critic, commentator, Internet
essayist and author of Echoes in the Wind, a novel now published
by Authorhouse.com . His essays appear regularly at various
alternative news websites from around the globe. Mr. Valenzuela
welcomes comments and can be reached at
manuel@valenzuelas.net
.

Comment GuidelinesBe succinct, constructive and
relevant to the story. We encourage engaging, diverse
and meaningful commentary. Do not include
personal information such as names, addresses,
phone numbers and emails. Comments falling
outside our guidelines – those including
personal attacks and profanity – are not
permitted.
See our complete Comment Policy
and use this link to notify usif you have concerns
about a comment.
We’ll promptly review and remove any
inappropriate postings.

In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational
purposes. Information Clearing House has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)